Keiko Tsuruoka

Tsugaru Lacquer Girl

Keiko Tsuruoka’s film is at once traditional and contemporary: it gently mixes present-day gender and sexuality politics with the old-fashioned Japanese domestic drama. Traditional lacquerwork kitchenware is the Aoki family’s legacy, handed down to patriarch Seishiro (Kaoru Kobayashi) by his now-ailing father (Masayuki Suzuki). Seishiro expects to pass it in turn to his son Yu (Ryota Bando), but Yu has no interest in the craft—quite unlike daughter Miyako (Mayu Hotta), who loves it dearly. The stage is set for conflict, as established cultural traditions collide with modern mores…

Tsugaru Lacquer Girl

Keiko Tsuruoka’s film is at once traditional and contemporary: it gently mixes present-day gender and sexuality politics with the old-fashioned Japanese domestic drama. Traditional lacquerwork kitchenware is the Aoki family’s legacy, handed down to patriarch Seishiro (Kaoru Kobayashi) by his now-ailing father (Masayuki Suzuki). Seishiro expects to pass it in turn to his son Yu (Ryota Bando), but Yu has no interest in the craft—quite unlike daughter Miyako (Mayu Hotta), who loves it dearly. The stage is set for conflict, as established cultural traditions collide with modern mores…

Makuko

A 5th grade elementary school student meets a transfer student who has a mysterious charm about her. He then learns her big secret.

Makuko

A 5th grade elementary school student meets a transfer student who has a mysterious charm about her. He then learns her big secret.

Utsuroi no hyôhonbako

A women challenges herself to do more and overcome various obstacles of life by taking inspiration from her soothing music.

Utsuroi no hyôhonbako

A women challenges herself to do more and overcome various obstacles of life by taking inspiration from her soothing music.

Lingering Memories

One summer day, Tokiko, whose life in Tokyo is going nowhere fast, gets on an overnight bus to the countryside. When she arrives, she meets Yohei, a high school student struggling to deal with the sudden death of a young man who was like a big brother to him.

Lingering Memories

One summer day, Tokiko, whose life in Tokyo is going nowhere fast, gets on an overnight bus to the countryside. When she arrives, she meets Yohei, a high school student struggling to deal with the sudden death of a young man who was like a big brother to him.

A Light in the Distance

Mado wakes up in the morning finding all the people disappeared. Hearing a strong typhoon might strike, everyone has escaped the disaster. She checks her school, but no one is there. She meets her classmate, Fujii, unexpectedly. Fujii asks Mado to find a shelter together. He doesn't want to leave her alone. Both start looking around to see if anyone's left behind: An empty theatre, a movie is still running on the screen. A young girl stands by a desolated pool. A strip show theater with a retired stripper. An old man brushes his shoe in a bowling center continuously. Both guys search everywhere. And finally in the heavy rain, they find shelter in a factory. This is a factory where Mado's father had died in.

A Light in the Distance

Mado wakes up in the morning finding all the people disappeared. Hearing a strong typhoon might strike, everyone has escaped the disaster. She checks her school, but no one is there. She meets her classmate, Fujii, unexpectedly. Fujii asks Mado to find a shelter together. He doesn't want to leave her alone. Both start looking around to see if anyone's left behind: An empty theatre, a movie is still running on the screen. A young girl stands by a desolated pool. A strip show theater with a retired stripper. An old man brushes his shoe in a bowling center continuously. Both guys search everywhere. And finally in the heavy rain, they find shelter in a factory. This is a factory where Mado's father had died in.

A Light in the Distance

Mado wakes up in the morning finding all the people disappeared. Hearing a strong typhoon might strike, everyone has escaped the disaster. She checks her school, but no one is there. She meets her classmate, Fujii, unexpectedly. Fujii asks Mado to find a shelter together. He doesn't want to leave her alone. Both start looking around to see if anyone's left behind: An empty theatre, a movie is still running on the screen. A young girl stands by a desolated pool. A strip show theater with a retired stripper. An old man brushes his shoe in a bowling center continuously. Both guys search everywhere. And finally in the heavy rain, they find shelter in a factory. This is a factory where Mado's father had died in.

My First Love

A sensitive account of adolescent love, wherein a young man falls in love with a beautiful but older woman living next door, thereby plunging into a whirlwind of changing emotions that are heightened by her capriciousness, and leading to a truly heart-rending revelation.

My First Love

A sensitive account of adolescent love, wherein a young man falls in love with a beautiful but older woman living next door, thereby plunging into a whirlwind of changing emotions that are heightened by her capriciousness, and leading to a truly heart-rending revelation.

The Town of Whales

Machi, Tomohiko and Hotaru attend the same high school. Machi misses her older brother, who disappeared six years earlier. The trio takes up his trail, which leads them first to Tokyo and then across the sea.

The Town of Whales

Machi, Tomohiko and Hotaru attend the same high school. Machi misses her older brother, who disappeared six years earlier. The trio takes up his trail, which leads them first to Tokyo and then across the sea.

The Town of Whales

Machi, Tomohiko and Hotaru attend the same high school. Machi misses her older brother, who disappeared six years earlier. The trio takes up his trail, which leads them first to Tokyo and then across the sea.